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"Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning,
you've depended on half the world."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The slice of bread we eat for breakfast had to be baked by someone.
The wheat had to be planted by someone else and, after irrigation and fertilization, had to be harvested and then milled into flour.
This had to be kneaded into dough and then baked appropriately.
It would be impossible to count all the people involved in providing us with a simple slice of bread.
In many cases machines do a lot of the work; however, they had to be invented and produced, and must be supervised.
Even our personal virtues, such as our patience and ethical sense, are all developed in dependence upon others.
We can even come to appreciate that those who cause us difficulty are providing us with the opportunity to develop tolerance.
Through this train of thought we come to recognize how dependent we are on others for all we enjoy in life.
We must work at developing this recognition as we go about our lives.
There are so many examples of our dependence on others.
As we recognize them, our sense of responsibility toward others develops, as does our desire to repay them for their kindness.
Pay it forward.
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Click here: Pay it Forward Foundation / Movie / Info
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Kevin Carter - photographer
This was found in his diary:
May this little boy be protected,
guided and delivered away from his misery.
May we be more sensitive to the world around us
and not be blinded by our own selfish nature and interests.
I hope this picture will always serve as a reminder to us
of how fortunate we are...
and that we must never, ever take things for granted.
Let us help alleviate the suffering around the globe,
and make the following vow,
"I will try my best not to waste my food
no matter how bad it tastes or how full I may be."
Click here: The Foods We Eat
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Pay it Forward...Give and You Shall Receive. |
"Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself."
-Leo Tolstoy
-Mohandas (Mahatma) Karamchand Gandhi
"There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well.
They must have worked for it.
I only feel angry when I see waste.
When I see people throwing away things we could use."
-Mother Teresa
"Many of us who think of ourselves as "free"
are in fact entirely dependent
on the invisible web of people around the world
who make everything we use.
For the most part,
we live our lives without thinking about these people;
rarely do we offer them any thanks.
Today and always,
we should recognise and give thanks to them."
-Patricia Worth / Ohki Simine Forest, Red Wind Councils
The Four Immeasurables
"May all sentient beings have happiness and the cause of happiness,
May all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering,
May all beings never be separated from the joy that is sorrowless,
May all beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment, hatred or indifference to friends, enemies and strangers."
- Siddhartha Gautama (Shakyamuni Buddha)
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